Brasov

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We had been alerted to the fact that this was Easter weekend in Romania - a week after the rest of the world celebrates it (Crazy Romanians) and that all the hostels in Brasov were fully booked. We arrived at Brasov station hoping to meet a room tout who could give us a roof over our heads and luckily were met off the train by a retired mechanic named Radu.

We managed to haggle a few Lei off his price and he took us to his apartment. On arrival we were just happy to have somewhere to sleep at night, but on further inspection, it turned out that Radu's standards of cleanliness were in fact terribly poor and the place was filthy. Nonetheless, it was warm and the beds comfortable. We settled in and then took a stroll around the town. Everything was shut for the Easter weekend, including the highlight of this area, Brann Castle (where Dracula apparently lived), meaning we would have to stay here a couple of days longer than we had hoped.

As a result, we decided that sunday was to be a 'lazy sunday' and that seeing as we were not pushed for time, a long lie-in, lunch in a Scottish pub, checking emails and then a few beers were the order of the day. There's not really much else to tell, except for the fact that we spent about 3 hours trying to work out the trick to "7-5-3", a game which Nick, one of the hostel staff is Sighisoara had shown us - to no avail.

Easter monday (the 2nd one in a week!) and we were slightly more motivated. We wandered around Brasov, a lovely Baroque town set in a Transylvanian valley. Either side of the main town square are forest-covered hills giving the town a very picturesque quality. We took a cable car up one of the hills to the top, but unfortunately there were too many trees in the way to admire any of the view, before descending by foot. We spent a few hours checking internet before heading home for an early night.

Our final day in Brasov was spent seeing the main sights which had been closed over the Easter period. Our host Radu had offered to take us in his car to see Brann and Rasnov castles so we left his house and the sausage which had been sat on a plate in his kitchen for the past four days and drove the 30 km to Brann castle. It is rumoured that Vlad Tepes, aka Dracula lived here for a short while. The castle is perced on a hill and is exactly what you would imagine a Transylvanian castle to look like. Inside however, was simply a reconstruction of how it would have looked like during Queen Maria and Princess Ileana's time during the early 20th century. We drove on to Rasnov, another fortress although this was slightly disappointing despite the collection of swords and torture implements.

Radu drove us to Brasov bus station, where we boarded a mini-bus headed for Bucharest. It was filled to the brim with people even standing in the aisle. We managed to get seats but I was sat next to an old lady who stank of hand-cream - and not the good kind either.

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Photos

Brasov
Brasov

Transylvania
Carpathian Mountains

Bran Castle
Bran Castle

Comments

[Gica]

Brann Castle (where Dracula apparently lived)..NO!..just Vlad Tepes came one in a while.Please stop thinking about Romania as the place of Dracula, only because Bram Stoker was a missinformed idiot.Anyhow Brasov is a very nice and confortable place to stay, as good or bad, clean or filthy places are all over the world in all cities.Don't tell me that your home town is clean as a facmaceutical resort.Beside that, now we have a virtual tour of our town, that we are proud of it.Visit http://www.vrbrasov.ro , and you'll get a better idea.Don't disregard the beauty of Brasov, only because you meet a few people that didn't fit your request. best regards!